Too little of one type of cholesterol has been linked to memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists studied more than 3,500 civil servants to investigate how levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol were associated with memory. HDL cholesterol can influence the formation of the beta-amyloid “plaques” that are a distinctive feature in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Higher levels of HDL are also believed to protect against damage to blood supply caused by the narrowing of the arteries.

After the five-year study period, the researchers found that people with low levels of HDL were 53 percent more likely to suffer memory loss than people with the highest levels of HDL.

Those with impaired memory are at an increased risk of developing dementia later in life.

Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and?Vascular Biol. 2008 Aug;28(8)

One out of every eight Americans gets it, and 47% of those who reach 85 years of age have it. Up to now Alzheimer’s was a disease without a remedy. Sure, there are nutritional or drug based substances that slow the symptoms, but If nothing else killed you Alzheimer’s would over a period of time.

Up until recently Alzheimer’s patients took medications just to be able to dress, bathe, use a phone, and other basic necessary functions by themselves a while longer. A team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine, has announced the discovery of a true cure for Alzheimer?s. The best part of this cure is it’s cheap and widely accessible. The cure is vitamin B3, nicotinamide, or more commonly referred to as niacinamide.

Kim Green, Ph.D., director of the team at the University of California, Irvine, bought a year?s supply of niacinamide for $30 and stirred it into the drinking water of forty lab mice, half of which were
specially bred to get Alzheimer’s disease.

After treating the mice for only four months, he discovered what should have been front-page news in every city in the world. ?Cognitively, they were cured,? said Dr. Green. ?They performed as if they?d never developed the disease.?

All the researchers in the study were both astonished and excited. Rarely do you hear researchers using the word ?cured,? but that?s exactly what happened.

At the end of the study, the diseased mice that were treated with niacinamide performed just as well in memory tests as healthy mice! The niacinamide not only protected their brains from further memory loss, but incredibly, it also restored lost memory function.

Human trials are underway.

The earliest indicator of coming Alzheimer?s may not be a memory test at all, but a test of your sense of balance.

Dr. Kaufman often tested the impact of niacinamide on balance, and my colleague Julian Whitaker, M.D., editor of Health & Healing, uses it as a test of aging. Borrowing a bit from both of them, here is how you can test yourself:

1. Stand on an uncarpeted floor barefoot or in low-heeled shoes. Close your eyes and balance on your right foot. Slowly draw the heel of your left foot up to where it touches your right kneecap. Don?t wave your arms for balance, just see how long you can stand there. (If you?re accident-prone, have somebody to catch you.)

2. Do the same standing on your left foot.

3. Repeat #1 and #2.

Then average your four scores.

The average by age group is:

Your Age – Seconds
Up to 20 – 30
30?39 – 25
40?49 – 15
50?59 – 10
60?69 – 7
70+ – 5

Why such a large difference between ages? It?s because certain nerve fibers in your spinal column tell your brain the location and angle of each joint in your body…but if you stop assimilating enough B vitamins, the fibers eventually stop sending their messages upstairs?and that?s definitely a pre-Alzheimer?s condition.